US gradually expands the scope of its attacks on Iran

The United States has gradually expanded the scope of its attacks against Iran over the course of two weeks of punishing airstrikes that increasingly resemble the war’s opening salvos.

After a brief ceasefire in June following the signing of an interim deal to end the conflict, a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz erupted, shattering the truce and pushing the countries back to the precipice of an all-out war across the Middle East.

The U.S. started off with intense waves of strikes on Iran’s navy and coastal defenses earlier this month, aiming to blunt Tehran’s ability to attack ships in the strait vital to world energy supplies. In recent days, the U.S. has expanded its targets, hitting bridges and infrastructure in the south and striking deeper into the center of Iran and the outskirts of its capital, Tehran.

Despite its growing intensity and scope, the renewed U.S. aerial campaign is not as fierce in either way as the one at the start of the war, which began on Feb. 28. In just the first 100 hours of the war, the U.S. and Israel hit hundreds of military targets and killed top leaders of Iran, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Iranian Health Ministry says 3,434 people have been killed since the war began, including 55 during the recent escalation. The latest U.S. strikes temporarily disrupted transportation and communications within Iran, and damaged water infrastructure used by thousands of people.

The U.S. military has said its recent barrages were aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten vessels in the strait. But Iran hasn’t backed down.

It has intensified strikes on ships in the strait and on Gulf countries housing U.S. bases, killing at least four American soldiers and damaging critical infrastructure. Israel has so far not been targeted in this latest round of fighting, and it has not joined the U.S. in launching attacks.

Here is a look at what the U.S. has been striking and what it may have achieved:

Not long after the countries had reached an interim ceasefire deal, Iran began striking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering tit-for-tat attacks with the U.S. By July 12, the U.S. military intensified its bombing campaign, and a day later, President Donald Trump reimposed a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

In two days of bombardment, the U.S. military said it struck dozens of targets, including air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone factories and launchers, and small boats. It used precision munitions, naval vessels and, for the first time, one-way attack sea drones.

The strikes focused on coastal provinces along the strait and Persian Gulf: Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan. The city and port of Bandar Abbas, which is on the strait and home to critical naval and trade infrastructure, bore the initial brunt. Strikes also hit key islands in the Gulf — Qeshm, Abu Musa and Kish. Further east, naval and military bases in Sistan and Baluchistan province on the Gulf of Oman have been hit.

A flurry of strikes over two days damaged at least six bridges and a tunnel around Bandar Abbas, images on state TV showed. The goal appeared to be to sever the links of the Revolutionary Guard bases there with the rest of the country. Another strike hit a railway junction west of the port city.

Residents captured images of traffic jams on some roads following the strikes.

Over the past two weeks, other strikes in Bandar Abbas hit the offices of the radio and communications regulatory authority, which manages Iran’s radio-frequency spectrum. For three days, the U.S. hit a maritime communications tower in one of the city’s ports, totally destroying it on July 17. Another communications tower was hit about 120 kilometers (75 miles) down the coast.

Strikes also disrupted communications temporarily between the mainland and the islands of Kharg and Qeshm, though by the 10th day of the campaign, Iranian authorities said they had restored connections. A fishmeal production factory was hit in Qeshm.

At the northern end of the Persian Gulf, power outages were reported in parts of Khuzestan province after strikes there.

Other infrastructure has also been hit, including an agricultural water pumping station in Khuzestan, killing one person, according to local officials. A reported strike on July 18 hit a water desalination plant in Jask, on a peninsula just outside the Strait of Hormuz, destroying the pumping stations and affecting water supply to 10,000 residents nearby, according to Iranian officials. That attack followed an Iranian strike on U.S. bases in Jordan, where at least three soldiers were killed and others were injured.

A U.S. strike on a border crossing with Iraq, where hundreds of pilgrims had gathered, killed two people, according to state media.

The American military has said it is hitting “logistics infrastructure.” Last week, Trump warned that for every Iranian attack on the strait, a power plant or bridge will be hit.

Iranian media have been quick to report that roads and tunnels hit by the Americans were under repair, or that alternative routes were established to connect the south with the rest of the country.

By the third day of the reignited conflict, U.S. strikes moved to hit deeper inside Iran. Targets included Revolutionary Guard and military bases believed responsible for attacks on American bases in the Gulf, as well as reported missile production units, military installations and airports used by the Guard.

U.S. forces hit a military barracks in the city of Iranshahr in the far southeast of the country, killing seven soldiers and wounding a dozen others, according to Iranian officials. The Iranian military had recently claimed it conducted drone attacks against American bases in the region, including one in Jordan on July 15, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War and the Critical Threats Project.

At least two strikes hit a Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force installation in Khuzestan province, also believed to have been involved in attacks on U.S. bases.

So far, the Tehran area has only been hit twice, in contrast to the first round of the war, when the capital was pounded by hundreds of strikes, mainly by Israel. A July 19 strike hit the Khojir military complex near Tehran, one of Iran’s main missile factories. A missile site outside the capital was later hit.